Kidnapped
by blueland10
Summary: Matthew Keller has escaped and he wants blood, Neal's blood. No Slash! Please review!


Kidnapped

The bight New York City lights gleamed like sparkling diamonds into the cold, inky black night sky. Taxi cars crammed the streets, honking their horns angrily and people walked quickly on the busy sidewalks eager to get home and out of frigid air. Neal Caffrey was among the throng of people desperate to get out of the cold, his wool peacoat wrapped tight around his built frame and his fedora pulled low over his eyes. His mind was relatively blank, completely exhausted from a long day of pouring over a corrupt CEO's bank accounts. Busy work or what he liked to call it, Peter's form of punishment. Punishment for what, he had no clue, but then again this was Peter he was talking about.

Neal Caffrey was thirty three years old, devastatingly handsome, and a convicted felon. Charged on bond forgery and implicated in at least a dozen other thefts, cons, and forgeries, young Neal works as a consultant for the FBI's white collar division under the careful eye of agent Peter Burke (and a tamper-proof GPS tracking anklet), in exchange for his freedom, lending his expertise whenever he can.

He turned down a side street, where the flow of foot traffic was much thinner, in hopes of getting to Junes' house faster. The street was claustrophobic and narrow, the tall buildings casted long shadows, throwing most of the street into complete darkness. Neal lifted the collar of his coat up and pulled it around his neck as a cold wind whipped down the street. Chills ran down his spine that had nothing to do with the freezing temperatures. He could feel eyes on him, watching his every move.

"Neal Caffrey, it's been a minute." A tall, dark haired man said stepping out of an alleyway. He looked sickly, dark shadows hung under his eyes and his skin was pale and waxy. Neal stopped dead in his tracks. He knew that voice all too well.

"Keller, I heard you escaped." Neal said turning to face the man, trying to keep his face completely expressionless as he began blindly typing on his phone hidden in his pocket. "I'm impressed."

"I'm flattered Caffrey, I really am." Keller said taking a step forward as hulking man with prison tattoos appeared out of the shadows.

"I see you made a friend." Neal said gesturing to the man.

"We share a common interest." Keller said simply.

"And what's that, killing people?" Neal asked sliding his phone up his sleeve.

"Freedom, money, I helped him escape, he's helping me."

"Is there something you want Keller?" Neal asked looking from Keller to the man behind him. A meeting with Keller was never a great thing, and a meeting that involved Keller, an escaped convict, on a dark empty street was a very, very bad thing.

"Things didn't end well last time we met," he said rubbing his chin with his thumb. "You got me locked up."

"Well you ran your thief over with a car so I guess that's how karma works." Neal said flashing his signature dazzling smile.

"Never took you as a man who believed in karma."

"What can I say, I'm unpredictable."

"Come take a walk with me Neal, we've got some unfinished business to take care of." Keller said pulling his coat tight around him and looking up and down the street.

"Sorry, I can't do that right now Keller, I'm a little busy." Neal said turning to walk away.

"I didn't ask." He said pulling a gun out of his coat and pointing it at Neal's head. Neal raised his hands instinctively as fear flooded through his veins. Keller chuckled at the sudden appearance of fear on Neal's handsome face. "Oh and we wouldn't be taking your tracking device with us." He said nodding to his prison friend. The man walked up to Neal, bent down to cut the tracking anklet off of his leg. Neal, thinking fast, stumbled, falling forward onto the man, dropping his phone into the man's pocket. The convict pushed Neal off of him cursing, completely oblivious to what just happened.

"What the hell is your problem man?"

"I slipped." Neal said harshly as the man made his second attempt to cut the anklet. Keller watched Neal carefully as his goon discarded the anklet in a dumpster, its high pitched alarm echoing off the buildings.

"Not a very smart move Keller," Neal said still hoping in some way he could talk his way out of this. "The FBI will be here soon."

"Well then we should get a move on it." Just then an unmarked black van sped down the street and came to a halt in front of them. The convict swung opened the back door and gestured for Neal to get inside. Neal hesitated, thinking hard, there had to be a way out of this. "You can't run Neal." Keller said.

A blinding pain erupted from the side of his head followed by the sensation of falling, falling into the darkness.

* * *

"Hey El, I'm home!" Peter Burke said walking in his front door, throwing his brief case onto the couch. He was exhausted, all he wanted to do was put his feet up, have a beer, and watch the end of the game with his beautiful wife with no thoughts of work and defiantly no thoughts of Neal.

"Hey hon how was work?" said Elizabeth Burke greeting her husband with a kiss. Her long dark hair was pulled up and she was already dressed in her pajamas clearly ready for bed. Peter was just about to answer when his phone buzzed in his pocket. Rolling his eyes and throwing an apologetic look to his wife, he retrieved his phone. "Who's it from?" Elizabeth asked with mild interest sitting down at the dining room table.

"Neal." Peter said staring down at his phone a confused look on his face.

"What did he say?" she asked catching on to her husband's confusion.

"535-537."

"Well what does that mean?" Elizabeth asked moving to stand next to her husband to get a better look at the text.

"I have no idea." Peter said blowing it off and kissing his wife once more. "Let's start over. How was your day?"

"Great, I've got everything ready for tomorrow's reception; it's going to be really beautiful. How about you, how was your day?" she asked helping him take off his coat.

"Ah you know same old, same old," Peter said causally. "Bunch of paper work, nothing special."

"Well, are you hungry, I can heat you up some dinner?"

"Yeah El that would be great." Peter said sitting down at the dining room table. He was just about to take off his shoes when his phone began to buzz again. "This is Burke." He said answering it.

"Peter, we've got a problem." A male voice said over the receiver. Peter's face fell and anger welled up inside of him.

"Damn it!" he yelled, causing Elizabeth to reemerge from the kitchen a look of surprise on her beautiful face. "I'll be right there Jones."

"Peter? Is everything ok?" Elizabeth asked in a timid voice.

"I'm sorry El, I've gotta go back in." he said getting to his feet and yanking his coat back on, frustration written all over his face.

"What's wrong?"

"It's Neal, he cut his anklet."

* * *

Neal woke in a haze of pain; his head throbbing as if every nerve fiber in his brain was on fire. Cold plastic bit into his wrists and something warm and sticky was slowly trickling down his head. He was slumped forward, his arms tied behind his aching back, and his pounding head resting on his chest. Muffled sounds of traffic and low voices slid in and out focus like an out of tune radio. Gingerly, he lifted his head, only making the pain worse, and opened his eyes.

He was in a large open room with dirty white walls and boarded up windows. Bright florescent lights were set up in a corner providing the only source of light for the room. Keller was there, lounging in a chair, a baseball bat sitting across his legs. He was talking quietly to his convict buddy who was setting up a camera.

"Is it ready yet?" Keller asked impatiently.

"almost." His buddy responded shooting him a dirty look. "It would go faster if you helped."

"I helped you outta prison," Keller snapped back. "That's all the help you're gonna get from me."

"Problems?" Neal said speaking up. His voice was dry and raspy, almost broken.

"Neal, you're awake, good." Keller said with a smile. "How's the head?"

"Your friends got quite an arm." Neal said wincing as a fresh wave of pain washed over him.

"Yeah he does." Keller said absentmindedly. "Know where we are Caffrey?"

Neal looked around. Something about that room did seem familiar to him, only he remembered it being light and happy, not so desolate and grimy.

"Our old apartment." Neal said in almost a whisper.

"What's that Caffrey, I didn't quite catch that?"

"Kate's old apartment." Neal said in a louder voice, his hate for Keller bubbling up inside of him.

"Yeah that's right, Kate's old apartment." He said his smirk still playing on his face. "You know I heard about her death. It's a pity really; she was such a wonderful girl...we had some good times." Neal struggled against his restraints wanting nothing more to beat Keller to a pulp.

"Easy there Neal." Keller said with a laugh as Neal grimaced with pain.

"Why am I here Keller?" Neal hissed, the pounding in his head getting worse.

"Like I said you and I have some unfinished business."

"And what might that be?"

"I gotta price on my head I'd like to get off." Keller said not taking his eyes off of Neal's blue ones.

"That doesn't sound like my problem." Neal said trying to keep his voice under control.

"No, see because of you I've got this problem, so you're going to help me erase my debt."

"How, are you going to make me rob a bank?" Neal said smirking. "Cuz' that will most defiantly work."

"No I had something else in mind." Keller said standing up his smirk growing wider. "I'm going to enjoy this Neal, I really am." His convict buddy came to sand behind him, cracking his knuckles menacingly. Neal swallowed hard; this couldn't be good at all.

* * *

"Alright people I want this place swept up and down, bring me anything that can give us an idea where Caffrey went." Peter yelled to the mess of FBI agents and forensic people before him. They nodded and frantically began moving around the small side street, Neal's last known location.

"Why do you think he ran?" Diana asked holding out a cup of coffee for her boss to take, her breath hanging in mid air.

"I have no idea, I really don't." Peter said shaking his head, "he had no reason to… something doesn't feel right about this."

"You don't think he ran?" Diana asked catching up on Peter's doubt. Peter just shook his head.

"Boss we found this in the dumpster." Jones said handing Peter Neal's tracking anklet. Peter took it and weighed it in his hand, looking at it as if held all the answers.

"I'm going to head back to office," Peter said after several moments of silence. "Call me if you find anything."

"Sure thing Boss." Jones said before he rejoined the search.

"You think Neal might have left some clues back at the office?" Diana asked following Peter to his car.

"Maybe…" Peter said trailing off. Something in the street's gutter caught his eye. Walking over slowly, he bent down and picked up a black fedora.

"That's Neal's." Diana said in disbelief. "He wouldn't have run without that hat."

"That's because he didn't run." Peter said his voice dripping with worry. "Neal's been kidnapped."

* * *

"That's enough; we don't want to mess up that pretty face anymore than we have to." Keller said putting his hand on his convict buddy's raised fist. "Put him in the chair." The convict lowered his arm regretfully and dragged Neal's unconscious body over to a chair that sat in front of the camera. "Cut his ties." Keller said throwing him a pair of scissors.

"Isn't that a bad idea?" the convict said dumbfounded.

"Just shut up and cut the bindings." Grumbling Keller's convict friend cut Neal's plastic bindings and tossed them away carelessly. "Good, now wake him up, it's time for his performance."

* * *

"Agent Burke, this just arrived for you." A young FBI intern said handing Peter a small package. Peter was in the FBI conference room, pouring over the little evidence they had recovered from the side street.

"Thanks leave it here." Peter said distractedly. Neal's hat sat in the center of the table, innocently. Peter couldn't take his eyes away from it, his mind racing. He attempted to call Neal's phone several times but it went straight to voice mail. It was like he had dropped off the face of the earth. "Who's the package from?" Peter asked the room.

"No name just a P.O box." Jones responded handing the package to Peter. He tore it open only to find a DVD. Confused Peter walked over to the large plasma screen TV and inserted the DVD.

"What do you think it is?" Diana asked sitting down next to Jones, the TV screen black.

"I'm not sure…" Just then Neal's face appeared on the screen, only it didn't look like Neal at all. His face was covered with blood and there was a nasty gash above a severely swollen eye. His usually perfect hair was disheveled and his shirt was covered in blood stains. He held a newspaper in his shaking hands.

Peter was frozen, stunned. This couldn't be real, that wasn't Neal. That wasn't the smooth talking con man he knew. That was just a boy, a scared, frighten kid. Yet those were Neal's piercing blue eyes full of pain and terror. That was Neal's face so badly beaten it was almost unrecognizable.

"Peter," Neal's image said trying to sound calm, but Peter could see though his façade. He was petrified. "They want one million dollars wired to account number 865-493-32. The money has to be untraceable and if you don't get the money by five o'clock, they'll kill Me." then the screen went black.

"Damn it!" Peter yelled. He began pacing the room. How could he have let this happen? After all he and Neal had been through, how could he have let Neal be taken like this? Anger coursed through his veins. Whoever this monster was, he was going to pay even if it was the last thing he did.

"Jones I want you to track down the owner of that P.O box and get a name, the rest of you and want you going over this video and find anything, anything that can give us his location!" Peter yelled as the video started playing again. This was not going to happen. These people, whoever they were, weren't going to get away with this. Neal Caffrey was not going to die on his watch.

"Boss look at this." Diana said suddenly standing up. Peter turned to face her, fighting back the urge to vomit at the sight of Neal's battered face. "Look at his hand." She was pointing to his left hand, his finger ever so slightly tapping the paper. "What is he doing?"

"It's mores code." Peter said watching Neal's finger intently. "Two…t…i…m…e…, two time, what the hell does that mean?" he said angrily. "Damn Neal why do you have to be so cryptic?"

"Two, what if it's second?" Diana said thinking out loud. "What if he's saying second time?"

"Ok second time what?" Peter said putting his hands on his hips. Out of nowhere, his phone buzzed on the table. Thinking it could be Neal, he dove for it. "Neal?"

"No, it's your wife." Elizabeth said sleepily. "Are you coming home soon?"

"Hey El, I can't come home now, Neal's been kidnapped." He said softly. He didn't want to scare Elizabeth, but Neal was like…family and she had the right to know.

"What?" She said practically yelling into the receiver. "By who? Is he ok?"

"No, he's not ok." Peter said hating the words coming out of his mouth. "Listen El can I call you back?"

"Y-yeah, sure, I love you."

"Love you too." Peter said before hanging up. He looked down at his phone. He had never before in his life ever felt so helpless. All he had was a P.O box and an account number to go on. The FBI would never issue one million dollars to save someone, especially not Neal, a felon. Peter was still looking at his phone when a thought popped in his head. "Neal texted me earlier tonight." He said aloud. "I didn't think anything of it but now…"

"What did he say?" Jones asked leaning forward in his chair.

"He didn't say anything he just sent numbers…535-537."

"Could they be coordinates?"

"No…no I think they might spell something. Look at your phones."

"K-e-l-l-e-r. Keller, the numbers spell Keller." Diana said with excitement.

"Matthew Keller, Neal's old rival. Of course he escapes from prison but still has the price on his head from the Russians-" Peter said.

"He kidnaps Neal and uses the ransom money to pay them off." Diana finished for him.

"Well now we know who took him, but that doesn't tell us where he is." Jones said somberly. "And it's four thirty."

"Yes we do," Peter said suddenly. "Second time, the second time I caught him! I know where he is!"

* * *

"They're not going to give you the money." Neal said weakly from the chair the new restraints held him to. His body ached every time he moved. He couldn't remember ever being in so much pain in his life, it consumed him like a fire.

"You underestimate your importance Caffrey." Keller said watching Neal closely, relishing his pain.

"Do you really think the FBI is going to give you a million dollars in exchange for a criminal? You're delusional." Neal laughed, which he quickly regretted as a sharp pain shot through his jaw.

"Maybe your right, maybe they won't give me the money. Either way, I get the joy of killing you." Keller said with a smile. "To bad Kate's dead, with you out of picture, we wouldn't have to sneak around your back anymore." Neal's expression hardened.

"She never loved you." Neal spat.

"If you really believe that, then you are the delusional one." He chuckled. Rage pulsed through Neal's veins. "Don't forget you were in prison for four years, that's a long time to wait for someone, and if I remember correctly, Kate wasn't all that patient of a person."

Neal fought against his restraints, itching to wrap his hands around Keller's throat. He was never a man of violence but killing Keller didn't sound like such a bad idea right now. His hate for him was over whelming. He wanted him dead. He wanted Keller to go through all the pain he just put him through. Neal wanted his blood.

"I'm going to kill you." Neal said his voice deadly. Keller just chuckled, lightly tapping the baseball bat on his palm.

"What is you always said 'violence is unimaginative'? You don't have the balls to do anything Caffrey." Keller said inches away from Neal's face. Without thinking he head butted Keller, knocking him backwards. Something hard collided with Neal's jaw causing him to cry out in pain. "Not bad." Keller said getting to his feet, his eyes burning. "But you really got to mean it." He said seconds before Neal felt another explosion of pain. "What time is it?" Keller snapped at his convict buddy.

"4:55"

"Well I guess you right Caffrey," Keller said cleaning his knuckles on Neal's already soiled shirt. "The FBI isn't going to make the exchange for you."

"So you're going to kill me now?" Neal asked spitting out a wad of blood.

"Yeah, I'm gonna kill you." Keller said picking up the baseball bat. "Hold him." He ordered his convict buddy. Neal closed his eyes as he felt the plastic restraints being cut roughly from his arms and the convict lifting him to his feet. He pulled Neal's arms tight behind his back, his grip firm and painful. "I've waited a long time for this Caffrey-" he started but stopped mid sentence. The distance sound of cop sirens filled the room. Keller's convict buddy looked around nervously.

"We gotta go!" he said pulling Neal's arms further back.

"Not yet! We've gotta take care of Caffrey first." Keller said looking at Neal with a wild hunger in his eyes.

"If you're going to do it, do it!" Neal yelled. He wanted the end; he wanted to forget his pain, his physical pain, his pain for Kate, he wanted it all to go away. He wanted to die.

"Well if you insist." He heard it first, his ribs cracking like dry twigs as the bat made contact with his body. Then the pain came, a terrible stabbing pain as if his newly splintered bones were pushing their way through his muscles. Air rushed from his lungs as he felt himself fall to the ground.

"Come on leave him, we gotta get out of here." Keller's convict buddy said. Neal looked up at Keller, begging him to finish the job, to take him out of his misery, but he just smiled and ran leaving Neal on the ground gasping for air.

He couldn't breathe, he gasped taking in mouthfuls of air, but it didn't reach his lungs. Panic spread through his body, his mind growing fuzzy, his lungs screaming for air. His body felt like lead, slowly sinking. Nothing made sense anymore, sirens blared in his ears, but he couldn't tell where they were coming from. His eyes began to close as an ominous darkness grew closer. He stopped struggling for air, he was going to die, and that is after all, what he wanted. It was going to all be over with soon, and then he'll be with Kate again. His name echoed in his fuzzy mind, someone was trying to call him. It sounded like Peter, a very scared Peter but Neal couldn't hold on any longer. He fell into the darkness, letting himself go.

* * *

"NEAL!" Peter yelled his gun drawn, running into the empty apartment his eyes searching. Neal was on the ground, eagle spread, not moving, blood blossoming from his side. "NEAL!" he yelled again running over to his fallen partner and dropping to his knees. "Hey buddy, look at me." Peter pleaded patting Neal's face softly. "Come on kid stay with me, JONES GET ME AN AMBULACE!"

"It's on its way boss!" Jones yelled back running up to him "oh my god…"

"Neal, don't you dare close those eyes! Hang on just a little bit longer…" Peter begged. Neal's eyes drooped and his breathing stopped all together. He was giving up. "NO Neal, come on buddy you gotta stay with me, you can't leave me! COME ON!" he couldn't lose him, Neal was his partner, his friend and at times, his son. He couldn't let him go.

"Boss the ambulance is here."

"Come on Neal, don't give up, don't leave me…"

* * *

Peter sat in the empty waiting room, his head in his hands, stained with Neal's blood. Panicked thoughts raced through his mind making it hard to think. Somehow this was his fault. He knew Keller broke out, he knew he would come for Neal. He should have driven him home. Neal was his responsibility, this was his fault.

"Agent Burke?" a soft voice said interrupting his thoughts. Peter looked up at find a doctor standing in front of him, blood on his scrubs.

"That's me." Peter said getting to his feet. "Is Neal ok?"

"Mr. Caffrey is still critical, but he stable for now. He's suffering from a flail chest, a collapsed lung, and not to mention several contusions and lacerations to the face."

"Flail chest?"

"A flail chest is when three or more ribs are broken in more than one place, the broken areas can't hold its shape, leaving less space in his chest for his lungs to open and air to flow in. now we've taped his ribs and placed him on a respirator, until they have held completely otherwise it would be too painful to breathe, also, I've put him in a medically induced coma to help ease his sufferings."

"So he's going to be ok?"

"Yes, he should be able to make a full recovery, but he needs time."

"Can I see him?"

"I don't see why not," the doctor said. "Follow me." the doctor lead him into the ICU, passed many other rooms full of patience and their grieving friends, until he stopped at the very end of the hallway. "I'll be out here if anything happens."

"Thank you." Peter said as the doctor stepped out of the room. Peter looked down at the floor unable to bring himself to look at the man lying in the bed. After all of his training, nothing could have prepared him for this. They didn't teach you how to deal with this at Quantico. _Pull yourself together man!_ He told himself roughly. Taking a deep breath, he walked up to Neal's bed.

He looked even worse that before. Peter swallowed hard trying to keep his composer at the sight of the respirator hooked up to Neal. He looked weak and helpless, like a lost child. A child, that's all Neal really was, just a child. Peter said down in the chair and took Neal's clammy hand in his own.

"I'm so sorry Neal." Peter said softly. "This is all my fault; I should have seen this coming. It's my fault all this happened to you, but you can't give up. I know you want to, I know how hard it is to fight, but you can't let go yet. There are people here who care about you, Mozzie, June, Elizabeth, Jones, even Diana cares about you. You can't leave them. You can't leave me. We all love you Neal, and we need you. Don't give up, or I'll haul your ass back to prison." He said with a smile on his face. There was a flicker on Neal's heart monitor, his heart rate picked up but then fell back down to its normal pace. "That's it kid," Peter said standing up and placing a hand on Neal's head, "keep fighting, we're all waiting."

* * *

Three Weeks Later

"Rise and shine sleepy head." Peter said cheerfully, entering Neal's hospital room, pushing a wheel chair. Neal groaned and turned over on his good side pulling the covers up over his head. "No, no none of that, you get discharged today."

"You are way to chipper for this time in the morning." Neal said his eye still closed.

"And you are way to grumpy when you don't get you coffee, now get up and get dressed." Peter said throwing a bag of clothes onto Neal's bed. Grumbling Neal sat up slowly and picked up the bag. Most of the bruises on his face had cleared up but there was still a gash above his right eye. Over all he had begun to look like the old Neal Caffrey again.

"Really Peter?" Neal said when he pulled out one of Peter's old FBI t-shirt.

"What it's all I could find." He said innocently. Neal just rolled his eyes and slid the curtain around.

"You take longer than Elizabeth to get dressed, hurry up!" Peter said after a few minutes.

"Hey I case you may have forgotten, I've had five of my ribs broken in three different places, it's going to take some time."

"Aw cowboy up." Peter said taking his turn rolling his eyes as Neal drew back the curtain.

"What is that?" Neal said eyeing the wheel chair apprehensively.

"Your ride," Peter said with an evil smile. "Come on Dino, sit down."

"I can walk thanks." Neal said taking small steps trying not to cause any pain.

"No you are going to sit down and you are going to like it." Peter ordered. Neal stared him down until he finally gave in; it was too early for this anyway. "I heard every nurse on the floor sent you flowers." Peter said off handedly.

"What can I say?" Neal said as Peter pushed him down the hallway.

"Glad to have you back Caffrey." Peter said with a smile

"It's good to be back partner."

Fin


End file.
